"A week seems a long time in sport." A review of the week that was...

Harold Wilson’s somewhat adapted phrase has been very apt in a week where tragedy has finally put into perspective seven disastrous days for English Rugby.

The RFU continue their search into who is responsible for the leak releasing their so called confidential document explaining the World Cup debacle, but everyone cares far more about its contents than its circulation.

The issue has now moved beyond the players onto the shadowy backwaters of the RFU, a bureaucratic oligarchy in the same vein as other notorious sporting organisations.

Rob Andrew has been called “England’s Sepp Blatter”, but unlike the seemingly indestructible Swiss, he is unlikely to survive the coalition of attacks from press, ex-pros and the public alike.

Yet while the planning and strategy of the RFU seems shambolic, the conduct of the players must not be overlooked. The report focuses on the extremes but much of the contents defy comprehension.

Their dwarf-throwing, chambermaid abusing, ferry jumping antics have revealed that Rugby’s elite is really little different to the game at the grassroots, where drinking games and ‘banter’ rule the roost as much as performance on the pitch.

Call me old-fashioned, or rather modern-day, but World Cup touring parties are ambassadors for their sport and country. Whether drinking full stop should be condoned is questionable but drinking games should certainly be outlawed.

Rugby is in danger of succumbing to the same professional depths as football, and England’s World Cup campaign resembles the oval-balled flops to Germany and South Africa far more than the triumph of 2003. The players and management are jointly responsible.

Speaking of the beautiful game, it is a mark of change that of our Champions League entrants it is Arsenal who are pacesetters. After their midweek snap together, Robin Van Persie’s performances are beginning to resemble Ferderesque proportions, and while an injury to RVP could mean RIP to Arsenal’s season, spirit and quality across the board is appearing.

‘Villas-Goas’ was my favourite headline of the week and while victory over Wolves has eased problems partly fabricated by the tabloids, Chelsea do have problems and lack the youth and unity of yesterday-year.

City also received a reality check this week, and have Joe Hart to thank for an Anfield point, while no amount of ref-blaming by Fergie can disguise United’s fragility in the absence of key players. The Premier League remains wide open, and Tottenham, Liverpool and even Newcastle still all pose a threat in a season of irregularity.

Formula One has been only too regular in 2011 and Red Bull hegemony continued in Brazil, despite it being Webber not Vettel leading the way.

Novak Djokovic has enjoyed similar domination in Tennis but even he struggled as Roger Federer rolled back the years with victory at the O2 as he prepared to end his Grand Slam hoodoo next year. The London woes of Djokovic, Nadal and Murray personify problems within the Tour. There are simply too many matchers and the players, particularly these three defensive sluggers, cannot cope.

Political wrangles have also dominated the sporting agenda elsewhere. The NBA lockout has finally ended, the WADA v BOA drugs ban-battle has further escalated, while a potential Olympic boycott is rumoured (surely the first of many such speculations?) by the Indian team.

On a lighter level it has been a week for the underdog. The American Samoan football team registered their first ever victory while the Great Britain Women’s Handball edged out African champions Angola. Not bad for a team which was only set up in 2007.

Yet it is Gary Speed who must have the final say. One of the Premier League’s greatest players and poised to be a great manager as well.

Circumstances will eventually emerge but his death is a tragic reminder that beyond the political, financial and RFU related turmoil, some things are just that bit more important.

Lockyer, Thorpe and Ponting: Three Aussie Greats?

One has returned, one has retired and the other is in danger of being pushed out, and it remains unknown as to which will be remembered as the greatest.

‘Sporting greatness’ is an ambivalent and often overused concept.

To be ‘great’ one must be a champion, winning the biggest prizes available. This must be done several times, ideally by scaling the precipice against successive generations to display true magnificence.

Ideally a great would also have a great rival to provide a challenge like never before, and the greatest will bounce back from defeats to triumph over this rival in the final campaign.

The recent death of Joe Frazier has reawakened the tail of one of the greatest sporting rivalries. Muhammad Ali coming back from defeat to defeat Frazier not once but twice: surely the ultimate great?

Ali is the benchmark against whom all must be judged. In our generation Roger Federer holds that accolade. Yet even he has struggled against the young upstarts, and one more great triumph may be necessary to truly cement his place alongside Ali.

Other names spring to mind: Messi, Armstrong, Woods and Bolt. All are contenders but are they fully deserving of greatness?

So what of the three Australians? Ian Thorpe was the greatest teenage swimmer the world had ever seen and he also won swimming’s ‘Thriller in Manilla’ when he won the 200m Freestyle ‘Race of the Century’ in 2004.

Yet he did not have the longevity of a Federer or an Ali, retiring after losing favour with his sport in 2006. His return so far has been unsuccessful, and while it would be wrong to write him off yet, swimming has been moved on by that other modern day great: Michael Phelps.

Darren Lockyer is certainly the lowest key of the three but in many ways the most successful. Dominant in the domestic and the international game, with a record number of caps and tries for his country along with a world cup winner’s medal. One of Rugby League’s greatest ever players.

Maybe Lockyer was less tested playing in such a dominant Kangaroo team. The way he responded to adversity against England last weekend however shows those essential qualities of perseverance, determination and success.

And so to Ponting, that great pantomime villain of English sport. A villain who combined attacking magnificence with mental capacity and an eye for the big occasion.

 He may be remembered as the man who lost three Ashes series but he was one of only a few sportsmen whose mere presence created genuine fear, and who could forget his match saving 156 at Old Trafford in 2005, an innings of breathtaking brilliance.

For me Thorpe must triumph against the odds in London next year, Lockyer was a great but never had the opportunities of other sports to fundamentally prove it. Ponting may be a shadow of his former self, but his contribution to Australia’s victory in Johannesburg showed that dogmatic resilience was still there.

Ponting may be retiring soon, and as an England fan I will unsportingly say good riddance, but good riddance to a great player.

"A marathon and not a sprint?" Kenya's Olympic selection battle is tougher than any before

Two more supreme marathon performances in New York this weekend has made the Kenyan Olympic selection ever more competitive and uncertain.

Newspaper columns over the upcoming months will be full of heroic success stories of athletes beating all the odds to qualify for London. Spare a thought however for those who are among the best in the world, but could still miss out due to their country’s great depth in a particular sport.

Table Tennis is one such example as five Chinese men and women, all ranked in the world’s top six, will battle for just two individual slots.

Jamaican sprinting and British track cycling will be similarly competitive, while in Sailing Britain boast the world’s top two in the Finn Class (Ed Wright and Giles Scott), but both are poised to miss out in favour of the seemingly invincible Ben Ainslie.

No where however is competition more fierce than over 26 miles.

The Olympics remains the sports greatest test but to Kenyan’s London also offers a chance to pay tribute to the late Sammy Wanjiru, who obliterated the course record in victory in Beijing before his tragic death earlier this year.

Two of the three spots have theoretically already been taken as world champion Abel Kirui, who  repeated his 2009 triumph in Daegu, and Patrick Makau, who shaved 21 seconds off the world record in September, have each been pre-selected.

Yet no final decision will be made until April, and with many rivals chasing Makau’s record as well as times minutes quicker than Kirui’s best neither can feel completely confident that their selection will be confirmed.

But for wet conditions Geoffrey Kipsang could have bettered that world record in Frankfurt last week. As it was he finished four seconds outside, and it is these fine margins upon which selection depends.

Emmanuel Mutai and Moses Mosop won in London and Chicago respectably, each in course record times. Mutai also won the World Marathon Majors competition after coming second in New York, while Mosop ran the second fastest time ever as runner up in Boston.

The winner on each of those occasions, Geoffrey Mutai, is probably the best of the lot. Although deemed illegal due to the downhill nature of the course, his time in Boston was the quickest ever, while his performance in New York, a notoriously slow course, was surely worth a world record.

There are other contenders including the three times London winner Martin Lel and the fourth fastest man in history Duncan Kibet .

The fact that one of these men will win in London seems a formality, and while politics will ensure that they will never all line up together, the spring marathon season will offer more great challenges ahead of the day of reckoning next August.

What is happening to Premier League football this season?

The astonishing nature of recent clashes between our top clubs has been entertaining, heart-breaking and mesmerising in equal measure.

As an Arsenal fan I have suffered my fair share of abuse. If I could have been given a pound for every time some smirking United fan has remarked “I’d 8-2 be an Arsenal fan right now” I would probably have had enough money to replace Arsenal’s entire defence and still have enough left over to repay my student loan.

 Further defeats against Spurs and Blackburn resulted in more heckles:  “I’d never go 2-1 of their games even if it was 4-3.”

Yet United fans smugness proved harmful “Six of one and half a dozen of the other” I can remind them now, enjoying the emphasis on the 6 and the 1 after that farcical Sunday at Old Trafford.

After their marauding of CH3L5EA last week, Arsenal have also joined the scoring party and are led by seemingly the most prolific striker of the lot.

Beyond the obvious joke-writing opportunities, the results have illustrated a significant change in the way manages have approached big games this season.

The ‘safety first’ strategies renowned by the likes of Jose Mourinho and a younger Ferguson have been abandoned as attacking mentalities have become the order of the day. Injuries to the likes of Thomas Vermaelen (against United) and Nemanja Vidic (against City) have played their part, but there does seem to have been a new philosophy emerging.

Earlier this year the BBC hosted a program lamenting the absence of a true “number ten” in the English national game. Yet in the likes of Rooney, Suarez and Van Persie, and Aguero, Dzecko and Ballotelli, the Premier League hosts some of the world’s most exciting offensive talent.

What of the defenders? This is the country where a solid, old fashioned centre half has always been higher regarded than the tenacious, perennial attacker. Bobby Moore is the sports greatest icon.

However when even Bolton v Stoke ends in a 5-0 score line, you do have to wonder if we are witnessing a more fundamental change in the English psyche.

“However many you score, we will score more” is a dangerous idea, but given the frailties of Arsenal, Chelsea and even United’s defenses so far, it may be an accurate reflection.

Whether this will help or hinder the national game is yet unknown, but if it continues to produce games like those so far this season, I would 8-2 see it stop.